Mammals are among the easiest subjects for novice taxidermists to learn. Unlike birds or fish, they don’t require any additional steps

to keep their skins looking realistic, and don’t need to be painted after mounting. However, the term “mammals” is very broad, so it’s important for a beginner to decide exactly what kind of animal they wish to work with first.

Creating a taxidermy mount of a mammal consists of a few steps, regardless of species. First, the animal should be skinned, the eyes removed, and the hide cleaned of muscle tissue. Then, the skin needs to be preserved. After this takes place, this preserved skin can be stretched over a prepared mannequin made of polyurethane foam. Since these mannequins are made from designs sculpted by wildlife artists, they allow even someone with very little knowledge of how to mount an animal hide to create a professional-looking, realistic piece.

For the absolute beginner, getting a taxidermy kit is probably the easiest way to learn on one‘s own. These kits come with guides in book or video form that go through every step, from skinning to mounting, and can be an invaluable help to a beginner who doesn’t have the benefit of an experienced taxidermist to learn from. Videos, in particular, are helpful because they can be set up as the taxidermist is beginning the project, and stopped, rewound, or restarted as necessary. Unfortunately, most kits are fairy specific to what animal they are appropriate for, and those that aren’t will still require purchasing the right mannequin and eyes to create a finished project. Most hobbyists, particularly those new to taxidermy, don’t have the money or space to invest in keeping a wide range of mammal mannequin’s on-hand. Therefore, knowing what species, age, and even gender of mammal that is going to be worked with can be a big help when it comes time to pick out supplies.

After the specimen, any supplies, mannequins, and glass eyes have been obtained, the only thing left between a new taxidermy hobbyist and an accomplished taxidermist is patience, time, and practice. Online forums exist for fans of taxidermy, and their expertise can come in very handy for the absolute beginner wondering which animal is best to start with. Best of all, forums can also afford new hobbyists a place to show their finished mounts, get critiques on their technique, and learn how to continue to improve their craft for the future.

Learning taxidermy on mammals might be a bit easier than learning on birds, reptiles, or fish, but the results are no less impressive. With the proper kit, and a bit of instruction and guidance from either professional guides, or other helpful taxidermy hobbyists, even a neophyte can learn to create taxidermy art in no time.

Preparing a lifelike taxidermy mount is an artistic achievement, and a means of not only preserving hunting trophies or biological specimens,

but of creating a realistic nature scene. However, like any art form, taxidermy takes some effort to learn. While some taxidermy hobbyists will be lucky enough to know an accomplished taxidermist they can learn from, others will find that kits for creating mounts are an invaluable resource for learning.

Taxidermy kits usually come with a couple key ingredients, though the type of kit and the animal it’s intended for will impact what’s included, so it‘s important to know what type of animal you plan to learn to work with before purchasing the materials. All of them generally include the powders, pastes, or solutions needed to properly preserve the skin of the animal, while some others might include injectable solutions for use on fish mounts, which often require leaving the head and tail of the animal intact. Since fish and birds require some additional considerations that mammals don‘t, beginners are usually recommended to start with mammals, like squirrels.

Mannequins themselves may or may not come in a kit. Often, due to the wide range of sizes and poses available for most species, they are sold separately. These are usually made of polyurethane foam, and developed by wildlife artists to be anatomically correct and realistically proportioned. Some mannequins are different for either gender of an animal, so it’s important to know some things about the specific animal you’re going to be working with before you get started, if you don’t intend to keep a good selection of mannequins on-hand. Eyes, for the same reason, are generally not included.

Kits also come with guides, and sometimes video, on how to perform all of the steps of your taxidermy project. Depending on how you learn best, whether you choose a kit with a written guide or a video is up to you. However, video might be a bit easier for hobbyists who “learn by doing,” since it’s easy to turn the video on and work on your project at the same time, pausing and rewinding as necessary. The best guides will show every step of the project in detail, from skinning the animal to mounting it, though general how-tos exist on the internet for novices who need more help in a specific area.

Though it’s hard for a beginning taxidermy hobbyist to choose which animal to learn on first, forums exist online for helping beginners get their feet wet and introduce them to the art of taxidermy. By following the advice of others, developing an idea of what they would like to create, and purchasing a good kit, even novice taxidermists can create lovely, realistic mounts in no time at all.

Duck and goose hunters are frequently devotees of waterfowl taxidermy, and it’s no mystery why. In the hands of a skilled taxidermist, waterfowl make for beautiful, realistic subjects, and modern mannequins allow even novice hobbyists to pose their specimens in a lifelike fashion.

Waterfowl, like all birds are unique from mammals in that they have feathers. While this seems like a painfully obvious thing to point out, it’s very important to keep in mind that a bird’s skin is almost nothing like a deer or coyote’s. Bird skin tends to be thinner, and very greasy, so most taxidermists end up having to clean it with special degreasing solutions, or even dishwashing liquid. Care also has to be taken when removing skin from legs and wings. These areas are complex and delicate, and it’s easy to damage the skin if extreme caution isn’t exercised.

After the skin is removed, cleaned, degreased, and preserved, waterfowl taxidermy requires another step that mammalian taxidermy doesn’t- grooming the feathers. Without following this seemingly-minor step, the end result of the mounted waterfowl will look sloppy and unrealistic. In life, birds groom themselves fastidiously, and the direction of the feathers is controlled by muscles under the skin, allowing the birds to puff up to keep warm or look more threatening. After death, and once all of these muscles have been removed after skinning and cleaning, the feathers will end up sticking up in all sorts of directions. Leaving them be without attempting to groom them back to how they would lie on a live bird can completely ruin the look of an otherwise well-executed mounted bird. Care also has to be taken not to break the larger primary wing or tail feathers while the skin is being prepared, though any broken feathers can be fixed with a tiny bit of fast-drying glue at the end of the process.

After the bird’s skin is cleaned and properly preserved, it can be mounted on a pre-formed polyurethane foam mannequin. It can take up to two weeks for the skin to dry and the mount to “set up” thoroughly, so care should be taken not to disturb the waterfowl taxidermy before then, and to make sure that it‘s kept in an area with adequate airflow, to avoid mold setting in. After the whole process is complete, all the new mount should require is dusting to keep the feathers clean.

Though waterfowl taxidermy requires a few considerations that most other specimens don’t, the end product is always visually stunning, and a really great conversation piece. When all of the right steps are followed, even an absolutely beginner can create a beautiful, lifelike mounted waterfowl on their very first try.

Even if you don’t work in a museum, taxidermy is a fun and fascinating hobby that’s surprisingly easy to get into. Most hobby taxidermists take it up for one of two reasons- they also enjoy hunting or fishing, or they want to learn the skills to add to their other visual artworks.

For hunters and fishermen, taxidermy is a great way to preserve trophies. Unfortunately, commissioning a professional taxidermist to create a lifelike trophy can be expensive. With the right know-how, however, it’s possible to avoid this cost, and end up with a high-quality end product that’s still perfectly posed and mounted. Many of the necessary tools and materials are available online, including tools to sculpt a mount, stretch the hide, sew it closed, and even add other small artistic touches like realistic glass eyes or artificial teeth.

For artists, taxidermy is becoming an avant-garde addition to many other visual arts disciplines. Painters and sculptors, in particular, are seeing a revival of taxidermy, as artists incorporate both antique and vintage specimens, and more modern specimens in everything from sculptures, to dioramas, to paintings, to other pieces like artistic hair or clothing designs. Some enjoy combining two or more animals to create a fantasy creature- lambs and goats become unicorns, fish become mermaids, and some others are even more exotic. Special materials are available for these pieces, as well, like dye, special armatures for wings, horns, and glass eyes in beautiful, unusual patterns and colors.

Once you’ve elected to pursue taxidermy as a hobby, it’s necessary to find out where you’ll get your materials. If you’re a hunter, or know one, that’s easy enough. If you’re an artist, you may find inspiration in picking up vintage specimens from an antique shop or estate sale, or even in using leather or fur garments to create a creature. Some artists don’t use skins at all, preferring to work with antlers, shells, skulls, or bones instead. The only limit is your imagination, and very beautiful pieces ca be created from some very humble beginnings, after a bit of practice. While taxidermy is a great way to use every part of a hunted animal and ensure nothing goes to waste, many groups take a very negative view toward killing an animal solely for the purpose of creating a taxidermy piece. Therefore, it’s very important to always approach this art form with a level of ethical treatment and respect for the subject.

Once you’ve chosen to pursue taxidermy as a hobby, you won’t be disappointed. A fascinating discipline with a long history, taxidermy is a great way to help preserve part of the natural world, as well as expand your artistic horizons.

Many beginning taxidermists find it easiest to start working with a taxidermy kit. Kits have the advantage of containing all or most of the supplies needed to create a finished piece, often for a lower cost than purchasing all of the items separately. They also come in various types, depending on the application.

Deer and other horned and hoofed animals have a whole variety of kits to themselves. There are types to preserve deer hooves (or even make them into a variety of décor items), rumps, antlers, and the head and shoulders of the animal. For a true beginner, it’s probably best to start small. Most of these kits contain a variety of solutions and instruction guides, to teach novice taxidermists all of the steps of animal mounting, from skinning the deer, cleaning the skin, preserving the hide, to finally stretching it over the proper mannequin.

Kits also exist for mounting whole animals in a variety of sizes, usually using polyurethane models sculpted by wildlife artists. Once the taxidermist has followed the kit’s guides to cleaning and preserving the hide, it can then be stretched over the model, leaving the taxidermist with a lifelike mount that won’t end up degrading over time like old stuffed animals used to. Many of these kits also include highly detailed glass eyes, which contribute to the mount’s realistic look.

For true beginners who don’t feel up to the challenge of skinning an animal and tanning a whole hide just yet, there are some skull preserving kits that give a very polished-looking end product, without all of the effort or skill needed to mount an entire animal. These are generally very easy to use, and consist of a solution to clean the skull of bits of flesh and soft tissue, and a sealant to protect the skull from damage due to time and sunlight exposure.

Lastly, there are specific kits for other, non-mammalian animals. Bird taxidermy is very popular, particularly among duck and goose hunters, but the particular consistency of bird skin and feathers requires different products and procedures than mounting a mammal. Birds have their own polyurethane mannequins, as well, which allow them to be mounted in a sitting, standing, or flying position. Kits also exist for preserving fish or reptilian specimens, though these are often viewed as being much more challenging than animals or birds, since the composition of their skin makes preservation and mounting much more tricky.

Though taxidermy is a highly evolved visual art form, beginners can take advantage of others’ experience by starting out using taxidermy kits. These can help teach novice taxidermists about the necessary steps, skills, and chemicals required to turn out a high-quality mount, making it possible for even a complete beginner to create a beautiful finished piece on their first try.

It’s easy to think that the larger an animal is, the more challenging it’s going to be to mount. However, with taxidermy, it’s often the smallest animals that pose the biggest challenge. For example, taxidermy fish require much more skill, patience, and expertise than they seem like they would at first glance.

The hide of each preserved animal has its own considerations that need to be taken into account. Most mammal hides are relatively easy to preserve, however the different structure and constitution of fish, lizard, and bird skins requires different solutions to treat and preserve properly. For this, this generally consists of borax, or a paste available in fish taxidermy kits. After the fish is opened up and the bones, meat, and organs are removed, the skin must be treated with this solution or paste to keep it from decaying. Since the skin is cut away from the flesh in such a way that the head and tail remain intact, the eyes and brain will also have to be removed.

After that, some taxidermists use special preservation solutions to treat the head and tail, while others soak the whole skin in a borax solution, or rub the inside with a borax paste. Treating and drying the skin will cause some loss of color in the scales, so having references available for what the fish looked like in life will be an enormous help after the process is complete.

After the skin is treated, the inside is powdered with extra borax. At this point, most taxidermists either begin packing the fish with sawdust, or stretch the skin over a polyurethane mannequin. Either method is a matter of personal preference. Once the fish is properly mounted, it must be allowed to air-dry in an area where it will receive adequate air circulation, and no moldy spots will be able to develop. The combination of treating the skin and allowing it to dry will cause the color to fade at this point, but, once the mount is thoroughly dry, oil paints or special airbrushing kits can be used to go back and add lifelike color to the scales. This is why having a good reference (either a guidebook to that species of fish, or photos or video taken of the fish during life, or very shortly after death) is crucial, since sloppy paint application will ruin the natural look and aesthetic effect of an otherwise well-done mounted animal.

Though fish taxidermy can take a bit more time and care than other forms of the art, the results are well worth it. Taxidermy fish make stunning décor pieces, particularly when in the hands of a patient, skillful painter that can accurately render all of the details of a living fish.